Cariboo Mountains, BC and
related studies
Stephen Déry - NHG
October 23rd, 2015
INARCH Workshop
What is the “Cariboo Alpine
Mesonet” or “CAMnet”?
• It is a mesoscale (~100 km) network of 11
weather stations + 2 radio repeaters
• First four stations deployed in 2006
• Most weather stations are situated in the
Cariboo Mountains
• There is a paucity of meteorological
stations at high elevations & remote sites;
CAMnet intends to fill part of this gap
• Long term goal is to detect climate change
at high elevations & impacts to snow/ice
North-Central BC weather station networks
North-Central BC mean elevation (~1250 m)
(11)
What does CAMnet measure?
• Sensors Measure
-Atmospheric Pressure
-Air Temperature and Relative Humidity
-Wind Speed and Direction
-Precipitation
-Snow Depth and Snow Temperature
-Soil Temperature and Moisture Content
-Solar and Infrared Radiation
•Averaged over 15-minute intervals
•Powered by battery & charged by solar panel
Cariboo
Alpine
Mesonet
(CAMnet)
Blackbear Mtn
Spanish Mtn
http://cam.unbc.ca
http://nhg.unbc.ca/wiki
QRRC
(el. 740 m)
Spanish Mountain
(el. 1510 m)
Lower Castle Creek Glacier (el. 1803 m)
Sep. 12th, 2011
Upper Castle Creek Glacier (el. 2105 m)
Sep. 18th, 2013
Browntop Mountain (el. 2030 m)
Future Climate of the Inland Temperate
Rainforest: Demise of the Snowforest?
Theo Mlynowski, Heidi Knudsvig, Stephen Déry &
Darwyn Coxson
Ancient Forest (el. 774 m)
March 23rd,
2012
March 20th,
2013
April 28th,
2011
May 10th,
2011
Kiskatinaw River Basin,
Dawson Creek, BC
Chilako River Basin,
Tatuk Lake, BC
Ongoing Research Involving CAMnet
• Elevational dependence of climate change
• Sediment sources and fluxes at Castle
Creek Glacier and its retreat
• Verification of analyzed winter precipitation
• Comparison of high wind events over
Quesnel Lake and Browntop Mountain
• Mt. Polley mine tailings pond breach &
sediment plume in Quesnel Lake
• Prediction of spring freshet in Kiskatinaw R.
Special thanks to:
-UNBC, FFESC, Environment Canada, NSERC,
SSHRC, & NEEF for funding
-Theo Mlynowski, Dezene Huber, and Jake
McQueen, for maps & photos
-INARCH Workshop organizers
Thank you!!
Email: sdery@unbc.ca
Ness Lake
Coles Lake
(near NWT)